Summer 2015

Art Of Dying

APMAS

Warped Tour

My summer was pretty hectic to say the least.

I started out with plans to be on warped tour all summer, working a record label's tent and shooting for some of their artists that were performing throughout the summer. The label pulled the tent last minute, so then I made plans to head out on mayhem fest with an artist all summer. Since Mayhem didn’t start until the end of June, i needed to fill the time up NOT sitting at home.

John Sustar (BOTDF TM/FOH) called me up and said he was going to me TM’ing a band, Art Of Dying, and they needed someone to do merch and snag some photos. I agreed and booked a flight to Chicago. The original plan was to go out with Art Of Dying from mid May until mid June, during their supporting run with Apocaliptica, then head out to San Diego and start Mayhem.

Long story short, sometimes you have to make tough decisions and take risks. Sometimes it works out, sometimes.... not so much. i ended up canceling my mayhem plans to stay out with Art Of Dying for the rest of the summer. The band was quite a trip. They’re all Canadian, love to gamble, and can kill a few racks of beers overnight. We did alot of camping during this run, and i've gotten to have some of the best days off.

The run with Apocalyptical was insane! I remember listening to them in all throughout middle school and high school, so to be on tour with them and watch them play eveynight was incredible. We were able to play a few festivals, including Rock On The Range, which was an amazing experience.

After that long run was finished up, I headed to Cleveland to shoot the APMAS again.

Last year, if you remember, i was in the BLACKSTAR back lounge area with Jason Butler, Juliet Simms, and Keith Buckley, filming all the backstage interviews throughout the night.

This year I shot the "behind the scenes of the apmps”throughout the entire day / night.

I started out the day before the event at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Alternative Press has an exhibit opening up that night, so they had a grand opening that I filmed with Ryan Downey (APTV Correspondent) , New Politics played, and Mike Shea (CEO) gave an opening speech about the history behind AP. It was a great start to a busy couple of days.

APMAS. So, this year I was brought on to do a “behind the scenes” and recap of the event. Seeing as the event was broadcasted live, I had to film anything that the cameras didn’t see. SO, I was honestly given free range to shoot and put together whatever i thought looked best, which was a first for me. I had a general direction, but basically I hung out throughout the entire backstage (it was at the Q Arena in Cleveland, so backstage was 20x bigger than last year) area and filmed whatever came my way. I had Lindsey Burns shooting portraits, the blackstar lounge with interviews, and all the artists just hanging out and catching up (there were a few backstage bars).

I was honestly so nervous about filming, but it ended up being such a killer event, and I’m very happy with the video and reaction. Another successful year surrounded by such an amazing team and photo / video army of AP. I already can’t wait until next year.

After the APMAS, i ended up TM’ing the band, The Bunny The Bear. My buddy Nate played guitar for them at the time, and they needed a TM last minute, so I headed to Rochester and met up with everyone.

Warped was hell on earth. We crammed 8 people in a 12 passenger van, constantly broke down (thank you Youth In Revolt for the spare tires), but it was still a great experience. I’ve always wanted to be on warped tour, and I definitely got to see the “beginner” stages of that tour. Doing it in a van is brutal, and I was reminded that every day, but just being in the “warped” atmosphere was incredible.

Made some new friends, drank a few BBQ beers, and got to watch some great bands everyday. Oh, and I got a GREAT tan line.